scrubbedexpat055

Come on, its high time you were here; the waters warm and the sun is shining (actually its chucking it down and blowing a gale )

Pete

Kapri

Hi Pete

How are you? Settling in OK? Drop me a pm when you get a chance

Mr Anderson

Hi, welcome to the forum and australia soon.

We are moving to melbourne too and we looked all around that side. Footscray has an old image of being rough but to me it looked like any street in asia, full of life and lots of asias going about their business whether chinese or indian or korean. Personally i wouldnt live there in footscray6 but it will be a great place to go out for a meal of an evening.

One school in footscray has a very good reputation but i dont know which one, ill try and dig it out

If you want suburban estates near by try maribyrnong (dont know if thats spelled right but its close). Its a brand new area just outside of footscray, massive shopping centre there and full of new housing estates.

If you want more character properties then look at
Seddon
Yarraville
Spotswood
Newport
Williamstown.

Housing shortage is nothing to be worried about, just go prepared.
Get together all your docs like birt5h cert, credit card and bank statements, references of people and ex landlords etc andf photocopy them 10-15 times.

When you go to view a house to rent you ask for an application if you like it.
Fill in application and take it in to the estate agents asap. You will have your paperwork already there so the application can be looked at straight away.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to offer 6 months rent in advance then do so as it puts you to the top of the list usually we found.

We wish we had had the benefit of this experience told to us when we moved over as we took it for granted it was similar to the uk rental market. NOT A CHANCE!!! People queue up with you on open days but its not that daunting. This is where the 6 months in advance makes your app seem more appealing to others.

The best thing to do(efficient) is to wait to get there. Book in to a rental for a week or 2 and go and explore the area, only you know what you like.

If you can, get a sat nav as they are invaluable (about 120 quid) as it takes the arguing and stress out of the whole thing as Jane the tomtom girl knows best where to go LOL!!! Its the single best tech purchase i have ever made.

Then after your search or areas, go on realestate.com.au & domain.com.au , homehound.com.au & myhome.com.au to look for rentals. You can save your searches and set up alerts for new properties on the market in those areas to be sent to you via email every day.

Print out each page as they all have the address of the property on, make a note of the realestate agents number on.

Get a map and try and do a circuit of areas. We numbered each property on a map and did a circuit of areas to save ourselves going back and forth all day wasting time.

Then whittle down the ones you like and ring up for appoinjtment or go to the viewing on specified day.

Take in your pre photocopuied stuff and hand in application.

There are hundreds of houses out there, it just depends on hwt you are happy paying etc.

Hope this helps, we looked at 70 properties in 5 days this way and whittled it down to 5 we liked, go accepted for 4 and turned one downas it was a second choice with the same agent. All this in a week so dont believe the hype about shortage as we did it last week. Just be focused and prepared

Hope this helps. It should do alot and take some odf the shock of the systems over here away.

We will be living in newport as of 5th jan. If you can afford it then williamstown is by far the best around there. Beach, marina, cafes,restaurants leafy suburbs,3 train stations to get to footscray and city.

lf you need any more info give me a shout.


just found this

Gilmore College for Girls
Government Secondary School
Footscray

Footscray City College
Government Secondary School
http://www.footscray.vic.edu.au/
Footscray

Caroline Chisholm Catholic College
Catholic School
http://www.cccc.vic.edu.au/

Braybrook
Braybrook College
Government Secondary School
http://www.braybrooksc.vic.edu.au/
Braybrook

Maribyrnong Secondary College
Government Secondary School
http://www.maribsc.vic.edu.au/
Al

estherg

in about 3 weeks we will be landing all four of us and I just dont know what to do. We have 3weeks lined up in a town house in Williamstown and thats just a base for looking at all parts, any tips for worried stressed head mum of two so I dont get stressed in front of the lil ones!

Mr Anderson

Hi

Read above your post for tips on house hunting. If you need any advice on anything else then just ask. Banks/utilities etc, just dont ask me about schools

al

estherg

Thanks very much

Mr Anderson

good luck guys with the move over. if you need anything just holler, im 4k away from you in newtown

al

ebyron

Hi
CAn I join your thread?

Found the info re renting above very helpful. We are halfway (?) thr visa process at moment and are hoping to be in Melbourne by July ... who knows !

Trying to wade thr' the info and get to a short list of areas to focus on when we get out there. Being stereotypical .. it has got to be near the beach!, and no further than 30 mins by train from CBD. Any ideas? St Kilda and Albert Park seem obvious choices at the moment but I guess they are going to be quite pricey for a 3 bed house. ( My four year old daughter would like a pool please , after seeing that BBC1 programme, Wanted Down Under!).

We went to Melbourne years ago, and it definitely has a good 'vibe' to it, seems to have a bit of everything - and good access to other areas when we are ready to go exploring!

hereshoping

Can I join too pleaase, just been granted our visa and hoping to move in August.

We're wanting to be somewhere pretty central, lots of cafes and restaurants and very good trnasport links. Currently thinking Fitzroy/ Prahan areas ideally but might have to go further out to get somewhere a decent size.

Any views on good suburbs for a couple in their late 20s?

Oz Rascal

We want to join as well...

We're heading to Melbourne (hopefully) this year sometime between July and September. Obviously subject to visa grant that is

My Dad lives out there up in Doreen so we'll be looking somewhere round there. He used to live in Lower Plenty and we love the Eltham, Diamond Creek areas so we're not sure where would be best. We're early 30's with two young boys (aged 4 and 2) so we want to be near school, kindy and train stations as I'm likely to get a job in the CBD.

Any advice on the areas would be greatly appreciated. As would any cost of living expenses, have a good idea from older threads on BE but some current costs would be great.

We will be initially renting and have two dogs so any tips on securing a rental that allows pets indoors would be great as well.

Colin & Toni

Shakmaty

My advice to anyone coming over without a fixed idea of where they are going to be staying is get a short to medium term rental and then explore areas yourself. We are all different on here and what suits one person may not suit another. Melbourne has lots to offer, but I don't think you really get an idea of where you want to be until you've checked it out yourself.

Rentals can be got pretty much anywhere and then it's just a matter of driving to as many places as possible...perhaps you could draw up shortlist before you get here with some suburbs in mind to visit. Remember, though, Melbourne is geographically huge, and it can be a pain driving a long way to work as the roads can get very busy. So where you work should be an important factor in finding a place to live. As you narrow your search (by the bay/beaches/bush/hills/city etc) you can start to find out what is most important to you in a place to live. I would say that a lot of expats come to Australia with a fixed idea in their head of what they want, but then change according to the circumstances of their new lifestyle. So just be ready to be flexible/adaptable and things should go ok for you's

BTW, Melbourne rocks

Sianystar

We are just getting our heads round everything we need to do now we have the grant
Heading to Melbourne hopefully by May, if the house sells!
We were there in June last year and loved every second, didn't want to come back here.
We're looking at bayside area, but who knows.
Thanks for all the info/advice so far, and keep it coming, my OH just thinks Its me that is a fountain of knowledge

annemarie and john

Hi everyone! Do you mind if we join your thread? We are in the early stages and want to move to Melbourne, visas permitting by early next year.
Have been reading this thread for a while and have found it very useful. I am a nurse and have applied for my nursing registration first. Don't really know which part of Melbourne yet, need to do more research. Just glad to know there are people out there, going through the same thing, who we can talk to

Oz Rascal

Hi Ann Marie & John,

Feel free to ask any questions, as I said in an earlier thread, my Dad lives out there so anything I don't know (probably alot ) I can ask him. Also, we're hoping to be there by September 08 at the latest - visa permitting.

Why are you choosing Melbourne, have you been there before, got family there?

Speak soon.

Colin & Toni

annemarie and john

Some friends moved there earlier this year. At the moment I think it just feels more secure to go somewhere where there are people we know. Just trying to minimise the homesickness we know is coming. Plus i like what i have heard about it so far.. I hope to be able to keep in touch with people on this thread once we get there. That security blanket thing again! Thanks for the welcome